Sermon Tone Analysis

The Request of James and John

Introduction- Kitty Woman

I love kids.

If you don’t already know that about me, you will learn it soon.

I love their imaginations and watching them learn and experience things for the first time.

I love their silliness and the things they think are funny.

I love their innocence and their ability to believe.

A few years ago, I got to do one of my favorite things--be a character in the daily skits for Vacation Bible School.

It was a superhero-themed VBS, and I was a silly, wanna-be superhero named “Kitty Woman” who was stuck with another washed-up superhero named “Sir Dancealot” in the basement of superhero headquarters that was under attack by the “Doo Doo Dragon.”

We had silly costumes, and the whole thing was just a lot of kid humor silliness.

But the kids LOVED it.

They were enthralled.

They became so invested in the story line and the characters that the whole series of skits was real to them, especially the smaller kids, that they didn’t even realize I was Kitty Woman.

Kids I spent lots and lots of time with came and told me all about what happened in the VBS skits without a clue that I was the character they were talking about.

In fact, near the end of the VBS week, one little girl started to feel very confused, and she told her mom that she had heard Pastor Katie’s sound in the VBS skit :).

I thought this was hilarious, so I took it and ran with it.

And when some kids did start to think that I was Kitty Woman, I told them that I had a twin sister named Kitty, but I had no idea what they were talking about.

And you could just see in their eyes and hear in their voices that they weren’t sure if they believed me or not.

In their innocence and readiness to believe, kids are super susceptible to illusions that they take as reality.

As they get older, they start to wonder if anything they thought was real was actually real.

They wonder what is TRUE.

Worldly Illusion vs. Kingdom Reality

But as adults, we know what is real and what is an illusion, right?

We knew right away that Kitty Woman was Pastor Katie.

We can separate fantasy from reality, yet when Jesus came on the scene, he introduced a new reality that turned everything we knew as human beings on its head.

Where we sought the reality of wealth, Jesus sought out the poor.

Where we sought the reality of revenge and retaliation, Jesus preached turning the other cheek.

Where we sought the reality of power and greatness, Jesus preached servanthood and slavery.

But really, the story of God is much about exposing the illusion of the world and calling people into true reality--Kingdom reality--where life and values look very different from the dominant culture.

The embodiment of Kingdom reality is Jesus Christ.

He lived and operated in a different realm of existence than everyone else did.

You can see that as soon as you start to read about his life, and as believers, we are seeking to know and live the way of Jesus.

This is reflected in the mission of Journey Community-- we are a community of people following the way of Jesus and learning to be present.

But I will be the first to admit that I don’t fully understand the way of Jesus.

I look at his life, and I see him validating the wrong kind of people and invalidating the right kind of people and performing miracles and standing up to government officials and dying, and if I’m honest with myself, sometimes I have trouble translating that to my life and my context.

Is anyone there with me?

I mean, think about it.

Even for those of us who have walked with Jesus for decades, doesn’t stuff happen in our politics and in our social systems and in our families and sometimes even within our own bodies that leaves us asking, “what in the world is the way of Jesus in this?”  Please tell me that is not just me… We don’t always fully understand the way of Jesus.

But despite my incomplete understanding, I will also tell you that I have committed to spending my entire life learning and growing and allowing the life of Jesus to challenge and then change the life of Katie, and I hope that that is your commitment today as well.

If it is, then you need to listen closely to the challenge that Jesus places before us today through .

The Request of James and John

35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him [Jesus].

“Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.

37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”

38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said.

“Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

39 “We can,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant.

These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.

42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.

43 Not so with you.

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

James and John

Okay.

So, let’s start with our main characters here.

Who are these guys James and John who come to Jesus with this request?

The text says they were brothers, the sons of Zebedee.

They were part of Jesus’ close group of 12 disciples, and throughout the gospels we also see that, together with Peter, they were in Jesus’ inner circle.

They were the ones who got to go with Jesus up the mountain when he transfigured before their eyes.

They would be the ones who would go with him farther into the Garden of Gethsemane on the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested.

They were men who were perhaps the closest to Jesus while he walked this earth, Jesus’ best friends.

I don’t know if any of you have ever wondered this, but I have always wondered how the other disciples felt about Jesus having an inner circle that didn’t include them.

If I had been one of the 12 but not one of the 3, I think I might have been a little jealous or felt a bit inferior to Peter, James, and John.

And if I had been one of the 3, I think I might have had a little superiority complex going on.

I probably would have thought pretty highly of myself.

Maybe this group dynamic was what caused the argument about which of them was the greatest just one chapter earlier ().

Jesus put the kabosh on that kind of talk right away.

He said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all” ().

After that argument, we have the story of the Rich Young Ruler that Pastor Jonathan talked about last week where this great, powerful wealthy man walked away from Jesus disappointed because his worldly illusion greatness and moral superiority were not enough to inherit kingdom reality life.

And you’ll remember that that story ended with Jesus’ Kingdom reality truth that “many who are first will be last, and the last first” (), pretty much the same thing he had said to the disciples after their previous argument, and then he pulls the disciples aside to tell them in graphic detail some of the things that are going to happen to him once they reach Jerusalem.

He will be betrayed, condemned to death, mocked, spit on, flogged, and killed.

Then here we are at today’s story, at the end of , where James and John corner Jesus and basically ask him for a carte blanche request.

Do whatever we ask of you, oh powerful genie.

It seems so nervy and ridiculous.

I can't think of many, if any, situations where I would feel comfortable putting myself out there like that, but not only do they do it, they do it to JESUS.

What?!

He must have been so frustrated and perturbed at them.

I'm going to give my life for you, isn't that sufficient?

You want a carte blanche request too?

But Jesus responds by saying, “What do you want me to do for you?”

And the scripture doesn’t give us much insight into how Jesus said that, but I imagine that it had a tinge of sadness and pain to it because he knew full well what they were about to ask him for.

He knew how naive they were and how deeply they misunderstood his mission and purpose on earth.

Despite his very recent attempts to tell them differently, they still think that his Messiahship is going to land him in a place of political power when they get to Jerusalem.

So they make their request:  “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”

This implies a royal throne with the places of highest honor on either side.

James and John do truly believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior, the Rescuer.

That belief is pure, and in this moment, they are expressing their desire to honor Jesus as the Messiah.

But James and John are still operating under the worldly illusion of what power and greatness is, so they believe that Messiah Jesus is going to establish a political throne, and they selfishly hope that throne will bring them honor as well.

“The brothers hope to honor Jesus while honoring themselves.

How easily worship and discipleship are blended with self-interest; or worse, self interest is masked as worship and discipleship” (Edwards, 322).

And this is where I feel a Holy Spirit punch in the gut because it is so easy for even my purest, most genuine acts of worship and devotion to the Lord to be obscured by some self-driven motive.

If I am really honest, that is frequently the case.

For all of my shock and horror and criticism of James and John and their shameless audacity in their request of Jesus, how many times do I actually worship and serve the Lord for his glory alone without any unspoken hope that I’ll get a little glory out of it too?

Fostering Part 1

By this point, most of you know that I am a foster parent.

A little over 3 years ago, I started to consider fostering as a way for me to have a family, which, by the way, is a terrible reason to be a foster parent, but I was unmarried with a great desire for a family, so I did it.

The thought of helping children and families was just a fringe benefit of going the foster route, but it was definitely not my primary motive.